Is the eVTOL Industry in Trouble?

NASA last month reported that they were cancelling the X-57 project. What is the NASA’s X-57 Maxwell project? And why is it important?

The NASA’s X-57 Maxwell is an all-electric experimental aircraft designed to demonstrate multiple leading-edge technologies. The goal of the X-57 is to demonstrate that an all-electric airplane can be more efficient, quieter and more environmentally friendly than airplanes powered by traditional gas piston-engines.

But, the project is shutting down!

A NASA press release states:

“NASA’s X-57 Maxwell all-electric aircraft project will conclude aircraft operational activities by the end of September, with documentation and close-out activities continuing for several months afterwards. The research from the X-57 provides aviation researchers with hundreds of lessons learned, as well as revolutionary development in areas ranging from battery technology to cruise motor control design.”

Read the full press release here.

This has put a lot of doubt in the minds of people following the eVTOL industry. Is this the first of many companies and orginazations to stop their R&D and production of their eVTOL’s?

Apples to Oranges

Joshua Resnick, the CEO of Parallel Flight Technology has a less gloom and doom viewpoint of the impact of the NASA announcement that this will have on the eVTOL Industry. Resnick was quoted in a recent post in a Commercial UAV NEWS post:

"I don’t believe the cancellation of the X-57 project by NASA means that the advanced air mobility industry is in trouble. NASA was trying to modify a conventional aircraft with an electric powertrain to specifically show the efficiency increases of distributing electric propulsion, which it sounds like they made significant progress on. This was an experimental testbed, not a product. That’s very different from the approach the industry is taking, which always involves engineering advanced airframes from the ground up around the requirements of the electric propulsion components. This is especially true for an eVTOL vehicle. Companies such as Joby have proven beautifully that battery eVTOLs can deliver on performance—but that required huge investments and building everything from scratch. For pure vertical lift systems where long duration and heavy payload are required, such as the ones we are building at Parallel Flight Technologies, we believe gas-electric hybrid systems make sense. However, for AAM applications, where acoustics and carbon footprint are key, pure battery or battery-hydrogen systems will be the solution."

Priorities Change

“I believe NASA’s priorities are evolving as they withness private industry like Joby and SpaceX moving faster than they can. Most of the general public believe that NASA’s primary focus should be on monitoring asteroids and climate change.” Doug Erickson, ED Santa Cruz Works

We here at Santa Cruz Works are pretty bullish on the future of the industry and can’t wait to see where it goes in the next 10 years.